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Brian Walshe tentatively heading to trial in October 2025
When will the Brian Walshe murder trial start? Jury selection is tentatively slated to begin in October 2025.
Jury selection in the murder trial of Brian Walshe — the Cohasset man accused of killing and dismembering his wife last year — is tentatively slated to begin in October 2025.
Walshe, 49, was back in Norfolk Superior Court Monday for a hearing before Judge Diane Freniere, who was recently assigned to oversee his case.
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The lawyers told Freniere they’re eyeing the week of Oct. 20 for jury impanelment. Prosecutor Gregory Connor said the attorneys are expecting a four-week trial, about three weeks of which will be dedicated to testimony.
Walshe’s sensational case has grabbed headlines since his wife, Ana Walshe, was last seen alive on New Year’s Day in 2023. Prosecutors allege he made a series of disturbing Google searches about dead bodies and purchased a hacksaw, hatchet, and various cleaning products shortly after his wife’s disappearance. Ana Walshe’s body has still not been found.
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Brian Walshe has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, misleading police, and improper conveyance of a human body. Defense attorney Larry Tipton noted Monday that forensic testing in the high-profile case “is extremely complicated, and it’s still ongoing.”
Connor explained prosecutors are still awaiting testing on one key piece of evidence, tissue allegedly found on a saw discovered in a dumpster near Walshe’s mother’s Swampscott apartment complex. He noted the tissue samples have been sent to Bode Technology, an external lab.
Walshe’s lawyers have also raised questions about the investigation’s integrity, given the lead investigator — Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor — was suspended without pay following his testimony in the Karen Read murder trial last summer. During the trial, Proctor admitted to sending vulgar texts about Read to his family, friends, and coworkers while working on the case.
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Walshe’s lawyers have requested information from a federal probe of Read’s case. They’re also seeking data from Proctor’s work cell phone and cloud account, as well as certain phone records from investigators assigned to Walshe’s case.
Tipton specifically noted an interest in any “text messages and emails and cell phone records that indicate a bias, a prejudice, and a lack of professional integrity when it comes to investigating Mr. Walshe.”
Prosecutors have said they don’t plan to call Proctor to the stand when Walshe’s case goes to trial.
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